The Crusader Journal

By Clement Uwiringiyimana KIGALI (Reuters) – A critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame asked him to free her and her detained mother and sister as she stood in court on Monday charged with forgery and inciting insurrection. Diane Shima Rwigara, who was barred from running against Kagame in August elections, moved to comfort her mother […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. forces killed dozens of Islamic State members in a strike on Monday on two training camps in Yemen, the Pentagon said. The camps in al-Bayda province were being used to train new fighters using AK-47s, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, the Pentagon said in a statement. Islamic State has used […]

(Reuters) – Video-streaming pioneer Netflix Inc added more subscribers than expected in the third quarter as original shows such as the latest season of “Narcos” helped attract more viewers. The company’s shares, which touched a record high on Monday, rose nearly 2 percent to $206.50 after the bell. They had surged about 64 percent this […]

By Julien Toyer, Angus Berwick and Sam Edwards MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) – Spain moved closer on Monday to imposing central rule over Catalonia to thwart its independence push as Madrid’s High Court signaled a hardening line by jailing the leaders of two of the largest separatist organizations. Marking the first time senior figures in the secessionist […]

By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sixty-six police officers were killed on the job by felons in 2016, up about 61 percent from 41 deaths a year ago, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Monday. The number was the second highest since 2011, when 72 officers were killed by felons, according to […]

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a decree imposing restrictions on North Korea in order to comply with a United Nations Security Council resolution. The resolution, about special economic measures, was a response to Pyongyang’s missiles tests in late 2016. (Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Writing by Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Andrew […]

By Anna Mehler Paperny TORONTO (Reuters) – The number of asylum seekers walking across the U.S. border into Canada illegally dropped by more than two-thirds in September from August, government data showed on Monday, as officials seek to dispel myths around the country’s refugee system. The decline, to 1,881 from 5,712, brings the total number […]

By Andrew MacAskill and Alastair Macdonald BRUSSELS (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker agreed over dinner in Brussels on Monday that the pace of negotiations over Britain’s departure from the European Union should be stepped up. A joint statement described a “constructive and friendly” two-hour meeting, during which […]

By Chris Scicluna VALLETTA (Reuters) – Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta’s best-known investigative journalist, was killed on Monday when a powerful bomb blew up her car, police said, in a case that stunned the small Mediterranean island. Caruana Galizia, 53, ran a hugely popular blog in which she relentlessly highlighted cases of alleged high-level corruption targeting […]

By Liana B. Baker and Anjali Athavaley (Reuters) – T-Mobile U.S. Inc and Sprint Corp plan to announce a merger agreement without any immediate asset sales, as they seek to preserve as much of their spectrum holdings and cost synergies as they can before regulators ask for concessions, according to people familiar with the matter. […]

Trump given unverified reports that Russia had damaging details about him

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Classified documents that the heads of four U.S. intelligence agencies presented last week to President-elect Donald Trump included claims that Russian intelligence operatives have compromising information about him, two U.S. officials said Tuesday evening.

They told Reuters the claims, which one called “unsubstantiated,” were contained in a two-page memo appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election that U.S. intelligence officials presented to Trump and President Barack Obama last week.

Trump responded on Tuesday evening in a tweet calling the reports: “FAKE NEWS – A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!” The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. One of the officials, both of whom requested anonymity to discuss classified matters, said the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other U.S. agencies are continuing to investigate the credibility and accuracy of the claims.

They are included in opposition research reports made available last year to Democrats and U.S. officials by a former British intelligence official, most of whose past work U.S. officials consider credible.

The official said investigators so far have been unable to confirm the material about Trump financial and personal entanglements with Russian businessmen and others whom U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded are Russian intelligence officers or working on behalf of Russian intelligence. Some material in the reports produced by the former British intelligence officer has proved to be erroneous, the official said.

The FBI declined comment.

SURFACED LAST YEAR

The charges that Russia attempted to compromise New York real estate businessman Trump were presented to the FBI and other U.S. government officials last summer and have been circulating for months.

The FBI initially took the material seriously, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, which was first reported by CNN.

However, the FBI failed to act on the material, and the former British intelligence officer broke off contact about three weeks before the November election, they said.

The warning of information about Russia’s compromising claims follows growing U.S. intelligence and law enforcement concerns about what Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has called “multifaceted” Russian influence and espionage operations in Europe and the United States.

In addition to hacking computer networks and spreading propaganda and fake news, it includes efforts to cultivate business and political leaders and find compromising personal, financial and other information on persons of interest, U.S. intelligence officials said.

The classified briefings last week were presented to Obama and Trump by Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers.

U.S. intelligence chiefs included a classified summary of the material to make Trump aware that it is circulating among intelligence agencies, senior members of Congress, government officials and others, one of the officials said.

An unclassified intelligence report released on Friday concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an effort to help Trump’s electoral chances by discrediting Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign.

The report said U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that as part of the effort Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, used intermediaries such as WikiLeaks and others to release emails it hacked from the Democratic National Committee and top Democrats.